Telsa and Ford today made an announcement of many Tesla the owners were afraid. In a Twitter Spaces SPEAKINGTesla CEO Elon Musk and his counterpart Jim Farley said that starting next spring all current and future Ford electric vehicles will get access to about 12,000 Tesla Supercharger stations in North America.
The move helped Tesla qualify for a portion of billions of federal dollars offered to improve America’s electric vehicle charging experience, and make life easier for Ford EV owners. For Tesla customers, however, it can means longer waiting times at the charging stations—despite the many complaints about the overcrowding in them.
“That’s one thing I’m concerned about — if it adds to the congestion,” John Sergeant, a Tesla owner in Seattle, said. SPOKE THE Wall Street Journal in February. He added that even if non-Teslas aren’t taking the coveted spots, “they really need to put in more superchargers.”
Not that Musk hasn’t hinted that day will come. He signaled a few years ago that his carmaker would eventually open its network to others. Then in February, White announced a “set of actions aimed at creating a convenient, reliable and Made-in-America electric vehicle (EV) charging network so that popular road trips of America will be electrified,” said about the Bipartisan Infrastructure The Act’s $7.5 billion investment in EV charging.
The White House said that Tesla for the first time “will open a portion of its US Supercharger and Destination Charger network to non-Tesla EVs, making at least 7,500 chargers available for all EVs in end of 2024.”
Musk reiterated today that he doesn’t want Tesla’s charging stations to become a “walled garden,” adding, “It’s our goal to do everything possible to support Ford and Ford to be equal to Tesla Superchargers.”
Current Ford vehicles require an adapter at Tesla stations, but its second generation in 2025 will use Tesla’s North American charging standard connector.
Last November, Tesla said it would share its EV connector design with other manufacturers, writing on his blog: “We invite charging network operators and vehicle manufacturers to install the Tesla charging connector and charge port, now called the North American Charging Standard (NACS), on their equipment and vehicles.”
Ford’s Farley, speaking to Musk today, praised Tesla’s charging stations: “It’s a big deal for our customers… we love the locations, we love the reliability… It’s great what you and your team have done for customers.”
Tesla customers currently using the stations are, understandably, less excited.